Roses, Radishes and Squirrels Sighted in OC

In the garden of OC what we need is some serious cabbage, but instead we discovered last week some roses, radishes, and a few squirrels. Jobs creation is job one. OC’s near 10% unemployment and the state’s near 13% unemployment, we see signs of economic recovery, but no jobs creation. How do you create jobs? Reduce fees and taxes, cut regulations and eliminate opportunities for frivolous lawsuits.

Roses: OC Supervisors Pat Bates and Janet Nguyen, together with Lake Forest Council Member Mark Tettemer, who refused to approve an Orange County Fire Authority budget that included a FEE INCREASE (Squirrel!) on the struggling business community to cover a pay raise for non-sworn fire personnel. In a down economy, fees need to be reduced, not increased.

Roses: Joe Kerr, Tony Bedolla and the Orange County Firefighters Association, who offered to work with OCFA to avoid that fee increase with creative, out of the box thinking.

Radishes: Shawn Nelson, Sharon Quirk Silva and Pam Keller who voted to kill Fullerton’s 30-years-in-the-making West Coyote Hills Project for parks, habitat, trails and homes. Fullerton has grown 1000 people in just two years, but only approved 12 building permits according to data from Experian and CIRB. This project would have helped keep their middle class in town and alleviated over-crowding, as well as turn fenced private property into some much needed public open space for North Orange County. And do I need to tell you what a jobs generator this project would have been? Thousands, not including the multiplier effect. Squirrel!

Roses: Harry Sidhu and all the members of the Anaheim City Council for their June 3 Anaheim Job Fair at Gardenwalk. And the brand-new Lake Forest Chamber of Commerce for its first ever job fair this month. They get extra points for trying to match employers, jobs and candidates in a tough economy.

Radishes: More election mail in my mailbox than I’ve ever had before.

Who are your roses and radishes? I’d love to highlight those good guys and gals helping to help put folks back to work and grow our economy! And the radishes? Well, let’s just smother them in salad dressing.